Definitions: (1) aware of one’s own existence and of external objects and conditions; (2) able to feel and think; awake; (3) sensitive of oneself as an alert being <knowing what one is doing and why>; (4) capable of, or marked by: thought, will, design, or perception; (5) able to see the light; (6) deliberate; intentional <a conscious effort to do better>deliberate; intentional <a conscious effort to do better>
Synonyms: apprised, cognizant, felt, known, sensible, scious <having knowledge>; supraliminal <above the level of consciousness>
Dictums:
• I AM that I AM. — God (∞ – ∞)
• Cogito, ergo sum (Latin): “I think, therefore I am.” — Rene Descartes (1596-1650) French philosopher
Quotes:
• There is no end to consciousness; All things are glittering like stars in the firmament of our being. — Paramabansa Yogananda [born Mukunda Lal Ghosh] (1893-1952) Indian Hindu monk, yogi, & guru
• Our great human adventure is the evolution of consciousness. We are in this life to enlarge the soul and light up the brain. — Thomas “Tom” Eugene Robbins (1936-2025) American author
• Why do I persist in perceiving a central me at all! What is this consciousness that even now, as I think these thoughts, contemplates its own existence? — Glen David Brin (1950-) Earth {1990}
• People generally react to any new situation in one of four ways: Aha! Ho-hum, Oy Vey! and Yum-Yum. These illustrate the four basic states of consciousness…. All else is mere elaboration. — Glen David Brin (1950-) Earth {1990}
• Our ability to tell ourselves a silent narration about a future is the key to the modern conception of consciousness. — William H. Calvin (1939-) American theoretical neurophysiologist; The River That Runs Uphill: A Journey from the Big Bang to the Big Brain {1986}
Note: Dr. Calvin goes on to say this need not be a verbal story; it can be a picture story – a silent movie.
Reflections:
• Everybody is moving, in consciousness, at their own personal pace. Each person can choose his or her own tempo of experiencing consciousness. Each person can move through the universe quickly or slowly. If you reach a critical “spiritual speed,” you will break free from inertia and become immortal.
• Is consciousness the measure of personal existence? If so, then you must experience consciousness in order to experience existence. I am conscious, therefore I am a person. The fact you personally experience your existence is the primary fact that personal consciousness does exist. If an entity never experiences its own existence in any objective way, it is not a person. Your existence, of course, goes beyond the physical. Ultimate existence is permanent.
• We all know we run on automatic most of the time. The longer your self-conscious (or, better yet, super-conscious) periods are, the more “life” is taking place. In order to exist in perpetuity, the separations between conscious wakeful moments must be decreased to zero. This is done by choosing to be conscious, not only awake but also alive.
It is our positive thoughts and actions that increase the quantity of conscious time. Acting positively creates a personal soul that will continue to exist beyond the physical body. If your choices are positive, you are generating a subjective reality that meshes with objective reality.
• Is it also possible to consciously choose nonexistence? Because of freewill, one can create a separate subjective reality which only partially coincides with genuine objective reality. If one chooses to do negative things, and does so habitually, subjective reality is distorting objective reality. Since everything must have its ultimate existence inside actual reality, a personal subjective reality that moves itself completely outside of true reality will eventually cease to exist. One can spend his or her time closing off all the windows and doors that are the avenues through which one moves through reality. And when the last opening is completely shut, there is no light of life coming into or emanating from such a person. If one continually chooses evil, the negative drag will slow them down, and can eventually stop, any progress. In order to accomplish such a self-isolating envelope, one would have to consciously reject all positive reality, constituting a very sophisticated rejection system.
Comment:
Normally you are aware of one of four things – and only one of them at any one time.
1. Sensory contacts
2. Feelings
3. Thoughts
4. Memories
Oftentimes the awareness can shift so rapidly it seems like you are experiencing more than one state in the same moment. Consider a kiss: you are feeling the tactile pleasures from your lips and other skin surfaces; you are feeling the love and appreciation coming into you from the other person; you are feeling the love and affection going out from you to the other person; you are remembering and fantasizing; and you may even recall you need to put the clothes into the dryer.
This composite is the experience of the moment. But there is also the experience of the observer self, the superconscious or the higher self. You can literally be in two places at once – experiencing the now and experiencing the experience. In this sense you can be on more than one level at a time. As you experience the facts of your existence, whether they are painful or pleasurable, there is also the higher knowing and observing level of existence. This upper level is elucidating to you the objective reality of your experience. Your superconscious self focuses on everyday reality and evaluates it in terms of a higher reality. That “higher” reality is the purposes and values of your ever-changing subjective self in combination with your level of harmony (or disharmony) with Supreme Reality.
Consideration: Hindu esoteric thought holds there are seven “spirits” relative to each plane of human consciousness: sensation, emotion, reflection, intelligence, intuition, spirituality, and a will to imitation of the Divine.
Observation:
Reflective self-consciousness includes, among other things:
• Creative fiction or art
• Imagining the emulation others
• Accurate recognition of oneself in a mirror
• Picturing what the future will, or can, hold
• Viewing oneself from another’s point of view
• Seeing what you are doing when you are doing it
• Remembering, fairly accurately, what was done in the past
• Plans to turn potentials into actuals in areas of personal growth and goals attainment
Color: red
Symbols: 1) front; 2) right; 3) Saturn; 4) a mirror; 5) a window; 6) an island; 7) Jupiter {Superconscious}